Nixa, MO
– A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study released
today claims there is no link between the MMR vaccine and autism. The
National Autism Association (NAA) says this study does nothing to dispel
the growing public concern over a vaccine-autism connection and raises
several questions concerning design and methodology.

For
years, parents have claimed that MMR triggered their child’s subsequent
GI (gastrointestinal) disease and autism. In a 2002 paper where the
majority of autistic children were found to have measles in their
intestines, the children examined showed a clear temporal link between
MMR exposure and regression. The CDC’s attempt to replicate the 2002
study fell far short of proving the safety of the MMR vaccine.

The
CDC study was designed to detect persistent measles virus in
autistic children with GI problems. The assumption being if there is
no measles virus at the long delayed time of biopsy, there is no
link between autism and MMR. But NAA says this underlying assumption
is wrong. The questions should have been: Do normally developing
children meeting all milestones have an MMR shot, develop GI
problems and then regress into autism? Do they have evidence of
measles and disease in their colons compared to non-vaccinated age
and sex matched controls?

In
the current CDC study, only a small subgroup of children was the
correct phenotype to study. From page 7, “Only 5 of 25 subjects
(20%) had received MMR before the onset of GI complaints and had
also had onset of GI episodes before the onset of AUT (P=0.03).” The
other 20 autistic children in the study had GI problems but the
pathology developed before the MMR vaccine. Additionally, the
controls all received the MMR vaccine and had gastrointestinal
symptoms. The controls should have been free of exposure to vaccine
measles in order to make a comparison relevant for purposes of
causation.

Inflammatory bowel disease in the absence of MMR RNA does not mean
that MMR shot didn't precipitate the GI disease and didn't
precipitate autism. A similar example would be rheumatic fever where
the infection is cleared quickly but damage to the heart and/or
brain last a lifetime.

Public
confidence in the safety of vaccines is at risk until safety studies are
performed that are required by law, ethics, and science. NAA calls for a
vaccinated vs. non-vaccinated study comparing all health outcomes
including autism. The CDC is in charge of vaccine safety, owns patents
to vaccines (according to a UPI Investigative Report from 2003) and is
in charge of promoting vaccines. The public should demand that vaccine
safety be taken away from an agency with such conflicts and support
HR#1973, the Vaccine Safety and Public Confidence Assurance Act.”